The collie who was bred to herd sheep, living in the condo without a flock, spins and barks. The pointer bred to visually freeze on game birds stares for hours at shadows on the wall. The terrier bred to tenaciously prey on small fast-moving animals chases its own tail in madness. The retriever bred to carry the game bird in his mouth develops an oral fixation with balls and his own front leg. Obsessive-compulsive behaviors like these can develop from an inherited habit, an instinctual impulse, genetically developed but unable to express itself appropriately. For modern pet dogs living in worlds very different from those for which their breed developed, this is a common problem. The imbalance between genetics and a modern environment creates friction and ripple effects for behavioral health.

You cannot educate a genetically learned instinct out of your dog. Period. So it is your job to recognize these kinds of genetic impulses present in your dog and direct them into appropriate and healthy outlets of expression in his environment whenever you can. And yet, while impulses are instinctual, they are also flexible. Those outlets do not have to fit the historical purpose of the behavior to a T, as long as they are sufficiently satisfying to the animal by being close enough to the natural behavior that they can stimulate the impulse, arouse the dog’s system into an alternative appropriate action, and offer that rushing reinforcement of dopamine. Sanity—for him, and therefore for you—can arise from your creativity as you work to find ways to let your dog be who he was born to be in a healthy way.

You don’t have to buy a flock of sheep or let your terrier go on a rat-killing rampage. You can build intense daily routines of exercise that work in your world—whether it’s ball-herding through the house or plush-toy-murdering in the yard. You can take the edge off of his frustration and neuroticism by offering these alternatives to less-palatable behaviors that threaten other animals and people. Still, you do need to accept that these behavioral keys without their original environmental locks can present enormous challenges for him, and for you. You can successfully manage your companion’s interactions with the world around him so that those instinctual habits that run in the family don’t get him in big trouble. But be realistic enough to unburden yourself of the expectation that he should be capable of obedience to you in the face of these powerful impulses; realize what you both are up against when it comes to learning that runs so deep.

Learned Habits

So what about habits that aren’t inherited from grandparents? Behaviors that we pick up in our own lives are surely deliberate and controllable, right? If we learned something, we should be able to unlearn it. And so should the dog. Unfortunately, once a habit has been formed, it’s not quite that simple.